Trump promises to "hit hard" Iran after crossfire resumes in the region

WashingtonCrossfire reignites in the Middle East after a month of relative calm. US President Donald Trump has promised that the military will respond to the missiles that Iran launched early this morning against two US bases in Jordan. "We will hit them hard," the Republican said in statements to Fox, where he confirmed that US forces intercepted six Iranian missiles. The Islamic Republic had opened fire early this morning against the US's Arab ally in retaliation for the US attack on Sunday against two Iranian platforms on the island of Larak, located near the Strait of Hormuz. In a statement released by the Iranian agencies Fars and Tasmin, the main military arm of the Islamic Republic specified that the attack was carried out with drones and left several dead and injured, although it did not specify how many.

Although the episode is almost routine in a conflict that has already lasted half a year, the context in which it occurs is completely different. The attack, which as the US military's Central Command (Centcom) has stated was intended to be limited, threatens to intensify the crossfire between Washington and Tehran again at a critical moment for the Pentagon's missile reserves. The United States is perceived c as a slightly more vulnerable power each time a new Patriot missile is fired or the THAAD anti-aircraft systems. Trump told Fox that all the missiles fired by Iranian forces were intercepted by their defense systems, with the exception of one projectile they let pass because it was not going to hit anything "significant".

Centcom justified the "precision" strike as a response to the Iranian threat posed by two platforms on the island of Larak for firing rockets loaded with sea mines within Hormuz. US forces have been insisting for days that they have been clearing Iranian mines from the waters of the maritime passage and that tankers are being successfully escorted so they can cross to the other side of the Persian Gulf. Washington has managed to find a kind of corridor that runs along the Omani side of the strait. However, the fact that the navy is escorting some ships with relative success does not mean that the US has managed to break the blockade. The volume of barrels passing through per day remains lower than in the pre-war period.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that his country does not seek war, but will respond to "aggression" after cross-border attacks registered overnight between the United States and Iran. "We do not seek war, and this is the clear message we have conveyed to the world [...] but we will never stand idly by in the face of aggression and will respond forcefully," he stated. Previously, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard assured that this "terrorist aggression will be punished" and, in a subsequent statement, called the attack an "strategic and fatal mistake."

However, from the US, Centcom assured that the US attack had not been "an act of aggression," but a reaction to a detected threat. "In essence, Iran generated the threat and the US military eliminated it to protect civilian mariners, commercial shipping, and the free flow of world trade," it concluded.

As retaliation for Washington's bombing of the Iranian island of Larak, Iran's Revolutionary Guard claimed to have attacked two US bases, Al-Azraq and King Hussein, in Jordan with missiles and drones. The attacks, which caused "great damage," were intercepted by the US military, according to various US media outlets such as Axios and Fox News.

The collapse of peace talks

In June, a 60-day truce was agreed, but negotiations failed on August 17. Now, Washington had opted for Operation Economic Pariah, focused on sanctions, maritime control, and selective bans to suffocate the Iranian economy and had not resumed bombings. Until now. This morning's is the first exchange of attacks between the US and Iran since late July. At that time, the media reported on US bombings against dozens of military targets of the Revolutionary Guard.

Donald Trump remains trapped in the Iran labyrinth, a war with no way out that was supposed to last, at most, six weeks and that has already been dragging on for six months. Without any effective triumph, the American president has posted on his social network, Truth Social, a video created with artificial intelligence that simulates an attack on the Iranian island of Kharg, the country's main oil base and a recurring target for Trump. The images show in 9 seconds a fictitious bombing that causes a warehouse and a tanker to explode, with a message that says: "Kharg Island, blown to bits!!! President DJT".